Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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625. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the restriction regarding persons having to produce evidence that they have paid their water charges bill, notwithstanding that those who have paid are having their payments refunded, in cases in which a person is seeking to purchase their house from the local authority under the tenant purchase scheme will be lifted; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48997/17]

Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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626. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if it is a requirement that when a person is buying or selling a house in the private sector that they are expected to produce evidence that they paid the water charges bill in view of the fact that payments are being refunded; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49021/17]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 625 and 626 together.

The Water Services Act 2017 (No. 29 of 2017), which was enacted on 17 November 2017, reflects the recommendations of the report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services, which was published in April 2017 and approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas.

The Act provides for the discontinuance of domestic water charges for dwellings as set out in the Water Services Act 2014 and for the refund of domestic charges paid by customers. It also provides for the repeal of section 3A of the Water Services Act 2014, which provided that upon the sale of a property, a certificate of discharge was required from Irish Water to show that the relevant water charges had been paid. This repeal is provided for in section 5(1)(b)(ii) of the 2017 Act.